 Nature is a temple where living columnsLet slip from time to time uncertain words;Man finds his way through forests of symbolsWhich regard him with familiar gazes."Correspondances" [Correspondences] [8]

 Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.Dialogue xiv, Le Chapon et la Poularde (l763); reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).